In recent years, nanotubes and nanowires have been developed for applications in nanomechanical structures and electronic materials. Carbon nanotubes are of particular interest due to their electrical and mechanical properties. Similarly, silicon nanowires are currently being developed for electronic applications. While in theory a single nanotube or nanowire can be employed to construct an electronic device, such as a transistor, there are obstacles in realizing a single nanotube or nanowire based electronic device due to difficulties with their manufacturability. For instance, placement of a single nanotube/nanowire in a desired location may require manual alignment and assembly in that location. Further, individual nanotubes and/or nanowires often exhibit slightly different electrical characteristics. One possible method to overcome these obstacles in electronic and/or sensory applications is to employ a conductive material comprised not of a single nanotube/nanowire, but rather of a network of nanowires.
In the field of ultra-sensitive pressure monitoring, for instance, the measurement of small pressure changes (e.g., pressure changes<100 Pa or <0.75 mmHg) with a simple and rapid electronic device is challenging, particularly where a small footprint for the sensing device is required. Membrane- or diaphragm-based microscale pressure sensors on silicon have been successfully developed with microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. In such devices, a thin silicon membrane deflects as a result of a pressure change across the membrane, with larger pressure changes resulting in correspondingly larger deflections of the membrane. However, since silicon is a relatively stiff material and the deflection will be negligible in instances of very small pressure differences applied across the membrane, it may not be suitable for measurement of very small pressure changes.